Marlene Dusbiber of Chelsea has always been an artist. When she was young, she made baskets. She spun her own thread, knitted and sewed. She also began to hook her own rugs.

But it was when she tried her hand at carving that she found her true passion.

“I started in 1985, just (carving) as a hobby, doing one show a year for friends,” she said.

She carved primitive-looking Christmas ornaments out of basswood to sell, and many, including Polly Minick, a woman in her rug-hooking group, were liked the ornaments. Minick even used her sway at Country Home, a magazine for which she was a contributing editor, to give Dusbiber a boost.

In early 1997, Country Home magazine sent a photographer to take a photo of some of Dusbiber’s carved ornaments. The magazine staffers came for one photo, but liked what they saw and opted to do a feature on the artist and her work.

“They took lots of photos of the house,” said Dusbiber, describing the saltbox timber frame post and beam house she and her husband, John, had built in 1987. Her husband finished the house, making all of the cabinets in the kitchen and bath, as well as the fireplace mantels and doors.

When they were finished taking the photos, Country Home magazine editors told her that once the article appeared in the December edition of the magazine, she alone would not be able to keep up with the orders.

“They said that my husband should stop work and come work with me,” said Dusbiber.

So John Dusbiber quit his job and became a full-time carver with his wife.

As soon as the article was published, calls began to come in from all across the country, and the Dusbibers began to have dealers interested in their products.

That was 13 years ago, and they have been featured in the magazine several times since then and in the magazine Coastal Living.

They now have thousands of different designs, from birds to bugs to animals, all about 3 inches high, and the couple has been able to keep up with orders, and carve out a living for themselves, as well as send a daughter to college.

“We’re not living high on the hog, but carving has supported us for 13 years. We were doing really well in 2007, and (since) then it’s been a struggle,” Marlene Dusbiber said, adding that recently business has begun to pick up a bit.

Typically, they begin carving at 7 or 8 a.m. and don't stop until 11 or 12 at night.

But the long hours haven't changed the way Dusbiber looks at her work.

“I still love to carve,” she said. “I love the finished product, when it’s been painted, but I don’t like to paint.”

She said that her husband is more aware of organizing his time, and eventually will say that they have to stop carving and start painting.

“We average about eight carvings a day between the two of us, and we just carve for weeks and months and then paint,” she said.

Dusbiber does all the design work herself and carves the first one of each item.

Her husband, she said, is better at carving in production, and can start as many as 10 carvings of the same object at a time.

“I can only cut out two at once,” she said. “It’s very repetitive carving little birds.” She said that she completes all of the carvings, putting the finishing touches on the beaks and the heads.

She keeps the first carving of each item so the couple can refer to it when they get an order for a specific item.

“I put a number one on it, and I do all of the originals…Even if I take a picture it is not enough detail,” she said.

Her daughters, Maggie and Catie, help price and package items before shows.

The couple’s work appears in showings twice a year, including a Christmas show called “All the Trimmings,” which is held just before Christmas at the Chelsea Fairgrounds.

“My sister and I do the Christmas show,” she said. The show is a family affair: Her sister, Susan Ogden, is also an artist and enters antiques and pastel, while her father, Lawrence Ogden, 90, also of Chelsea, designs his own counted cross stitch bird patterns.

“We organize the show,” said Dusbiber. “It’s not a huge show, but it has a good following." The show also includes pottery, teddy bears, antiques and paintings.

Marty Walker of Ann Arbor frequents Dusbiber's shows, and has purchased many of her carvings.

"The first one I bought was a portrait of my dog," said Walker, who is a pastel artist. She said she gave Dusbiber some photos of her dog, Taffy, and Dusbiber captured the cockapoo in wood.

Next, Walker bought insects and commissioned Dusbiber to carve a mother duck with five ducklings for her mother, who had five children and was often called "Ducky" as a child.

"They're great conversation pieces."